Friday, January 18, 2013

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore


Most avid readers are, I suspect, at least somewhat fond of that fictional subgenre in which the world of books is intricately incorporated into the storyline.  When this is done well, there is no greater reading pleasure to be found.  And there is something out there for every reading taste: literary fiction, mysteries, thrillers - and in the nonfiction field, true crime titles about book thieves, forgeries, and the like. 

Robin Sloan’s debut novel, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, is a worthy addition to the genre – a novel at which booklovers will definitely want to take a look.

Young Clay Jannon, the book’s narrator, is a recently unemployed San Francisco web-designer who is not having any success finding a new job.  Clay, like so many of us, gets online with good intentions and specific goals in mind, but finds himself, hours later, wondering how he managed to waste so much time aimlessly browsing the web.  Most importantly, he remains unemployed – and has no new leads – at the end of each day of his “job search.” 

So, when he stumbles upon a “help wanted” sign in the window of a 24-hour bookstore, Clay is all over it.  After a quick job interview (that largely consists of climbing a tall ladder to the store’s top shelves and acrobatically retrieving the specified volume) Clay is installed as the bookstore’s overnight proprietor.  But, as Clay soon learns, this is no ordinary bookstore.

First, he is lucky if he sees more than one customer during any given night.  Second, the only books actually for sale are kept on just a few shelves right at the front of the store.  Third, the several thousand books housed on the bookshelves that line the bulk of this tall, narrow bookstore are only there to be loaned, one-at-a-time, to specific customers (a rather strange lot) who exchange a previously borrowed book for a new one. 

Something is up.  And Clay wants to find out what it is. 

Robin Sloan
Soon, using his programming skills, intimacy with the Internet, and a select group of similarly skilled friends, Clay begins to unravel the mystery of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.  And, what a fun ride it is – especially if you love books, conspiracy theories, and unlikely quests.

Interestingly, the world created here by Robin Sloan is one in which even the most adamant advocates of the printed book and those who ardently embrace the digital world of e-books do more than just co-exist. The story focuses on a “best of both worlds” scenario that results in the discovery of a basic, but beautiful, simple truth about life.

Sloan’s writing style lends itself to a relatively quick reading of this little book, and that’s not at all a bad thing because most readers will be eager to solve the book’s inherent mystery.  I should note, however, that one of the book’s side-plots did, in my estimation, more to slow the story’s momentum than to add anything useful, or all that interesting, to the story.  Most readers, though, will easily forgive this.

12 comments:

  1. Enjoyed your review! Not familiar with this title, but it sounds like a great read!

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  2. Thanks, Alexia. I had a lot of fun with "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore." If I recall correctly, this one was published sometime in November 2012, so it's still fairly new...and only in hardcover. I got it from my country library system.

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  3. I agree, I enjoyed this one! I was also impressed by how he made both worlds, books and tech, mesh so completely, celebrating both. I was inspired to make a reading map centred on this one, I added it to my own review, if you're interested in checking it out.

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  4. Melwyk, the reading map you created for "Mr. Penumbra" is fascinating. That had to take a lot of research and set-up time, but once done it's like opening up a little treasure chest or digital encyclopedia. Very cool.

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  5. I have heard some good reviews about this, and one bad one. I like yours, it's balanced, and admits the one flaw, but on the whole this book is worth reading. Thanks, Sam! I will be looking for this at my library :-)

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  6. It's not a perfect book, Susan, but it's a darn good one, and I really enjoyed it. I'm not a big "conspiracy theory" reader, so I was especially pleased with how this one ended...others will definitely disagree, I suspect.

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  7. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, is one the novel I enjoyed a lot while reading it. Despite it is writer new novel but I never found any flaw in novel theme and its look like written by one of ripe writer. Hopefully he will produce some more books like this one in future.

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  8. Ashford U, I hope there is much more to come from Mr. Sloan. His imagination and writing skills mark him as someone we definitely need to watch in the future. I don't think there was a flaw in his theme, either, just that one of the side plots did little to add to the theme or story...perhaps, I will concede, it did do something to more fully develop a few of the characters.

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  9. I felt much the same about this one! Curious which side plot you're referring to- the trip to the museum? the friend who built a city in their living room, the love interest that never really turned into anything... ?

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    1. Jeane, I'm embarrassed to tell you that I have no idea what I was referring to with that comment. Ten years is a longer time for some of us than others...

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    2. I have forgotten so many details of books I read that long ago, too. Which is why I try to be vague in some of my own reviews- so that I don't give it away to myself if I want to read them again!

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    3. Jeane, that's happened to me so many times now that I feel as if I have somebody else's personal library on my shelves. Never a problem finding something "new" to read in this house. :-)

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